Queen Anne Ride Windsor Great Park

Queen Anne’s Ride, dating from 1708, is a grand avenue similar to The Long Walk, also three miles in length, but unlike its more famous counterpart, it features only a single row of trees on each side. It runs south-west towards Ascot. In the 18th Century it was known as Queen’s Walk, the name changing during the nineteenth century.

A local furore erupted in 1993 when some of the older oaks adjacent to the A332 road to Bracknell were felled in order to restore The Ride. The Association of High Sherriffs had provided 1000 oak trees for the avenue, celebrating 1000 years of the office of High Sherriff. Many residents misunderstood the project and complained about the felling of the older oaks, but in truth it was an example of how Windsor Great Park is managed with an eye to the distant future, the restoration project being undertaken for the undoubted pleasure of visitors to the park one hundred years from now, and more. Even in the 1880s and 1890s trees in the ride were reported as dead and dying, and so this regular replanting is a standard task in forestry.

Queen Anne’s Ride makes a splendid walk in the summer, from Queen Anne’s Gate, at the end of King’s Road, to the boundary of the Park near Ascot Heath and the Racecourse, famous for Royal Ascot Week, passing by The Village, within The Great Park.